A 33-year-old Iranian woman who had been in the country less than two months was found dead inside a suitcase in St. John’s on Tuesday, according to the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.
“The deceased is a 33-year-old woman who was found in the area of Water Street near Springdale Street in the suitcase,” Const. James Cadigan told Global News on Friday afternoon after declaring the case a homicide.
“The office of the chief medical examiner believes she died several days earlier.”
He said that police believe the suitcase had been placed in a vacant lot in the area six days earlier — sometime between 1 and 3 p.m. on July 10.
The RNC officer said that the chief suspect was her husband, a 34-year-old man who was also from Iran.
“So the 34-year-old Iranian man, he was found deceased in his downtown home on Monday,” Cadigan said.
“The investigation into the man’s death does still remain in consultation with our chief medical examiner to determine the cause.”
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Given that the man was found dead a day before his wife’s body was discovered, police are still investigating whether it was a murder-suicide.
“We’re not ruling it out but of course we’re not ruling out the possibility of other factors as well,” Cadigan said.
Police initially reported the death only as “suspicious” on Tuesday despite the fact that the woman had been found in a suitcase.
“We have a process where we’ll refer to the office of the chief medical examiner to consult before we rule the cause of death,” Cadigan explained.
While the woman had arrived in Newfoundland and Labrador just two months before her death, the same could not be said for husband.
“He has spent some time, a number of years in Newfoundland and Labrador, while the deceased female, a 33-year-old woman from Iran, she arrived in Newfoundland on May 15th of this year,” the constable said.
“So she’s only been in the province for a little under two months by the time we believe she was deceased.”
Police have also released an image of the man pulling the suitcase as they are hoping to elicit information from the public about the timeline of his travels prior to the deaths.
“It was important that we provided a visual of the suitcase and the individual because we believe that he traveled throughout the downtown area of Saint John’s,” Cadigan said.
The officer believes the suspect was travelling on foot for a period of time as he walked through some residential areas towards Water Street.
Cadigan is hoping residents will reach out to the RNC with any information of video footage that can help them piece together a timeline of events in connection to the deaths.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.